The death of Irish singer Dolores O’Riordain (from the Cranberries), is yet another celebrity demise that leaves us with more questions than answers. I’ve written about Dolores before (see here); in that post from 2014, I asked was Dolores on psychiatric drugs? As it turns out, according to the inquest into her death, she certainly was. She had four anti-depressants in her system at the time of her death (by drowning in a bath tub), and a high level of alcohol. Her death was recorded as accidental and alcohol was considered the culprit. She was also under the care of two psychiatrists; both quite well renowned.

If, as the article suggests, Dolores was receiving the best psychiatric mental health care available, then why did she die? Surely, if you could afford the best health care, your life should be extended not diminished? that’s usually the way it works right?

Not so, with psychiatric treatment.

Pulitzer prize nominated journalist- Robert Whitaker’s ‘anatomy of an epidemic‘ explains in detail why those who receive psychiatric care (mostly in the form of drug treatments) have shortened life spans and increased disability and disablement.

When someone gets diagnosed with a ‘mental illness’ – In Dolores’s case- Bi-Polar, it usually send them down a trajectory of psychiatric medication regimes, which can last for years, even decades. The multiple side effects from psychiatric drugs can end up being more of a problem than the original diagnosis. Often times the side effects can mimic psychiatric illnesses, leaving the person in a much worse state than if they weren’t on the drugs. It’s very hard to come off psychiatric drugs too, even if you want to, and due to their toxicity, many people are poor metabolizers of them anyhow, which means that the drugs build up in the liver, causing many physical and mental side effects to exacerbate over time.

It’s interesting to note also, that 4 anti-depressants were found in Dolores’s system at the time of her death. Why on earth would her psychiatrists prescribe her 4 different anti-depressants? This is a recipe for disaster. It’s this kind of poly-pharmacy that often kills, maims or disables psychiatric drug users because of the various interactions between the medications. I took Seroxat for a few years in my twenties, and it was a horrific experience, it changed my personality, made me unruly, aggressive, act out of character etc (these are all common well known side effects of Seroxat and other SSRI anti-depressants) so I can only imagine what it feels like to be prescribed multiple psychiatric drugs.

It seems Dolores’s story follows the same path as many of those who are prescribed psychiatric drugs over a long period of time. Usually the psychiatric diagnoses comes from a trauma. In Dolores’s case, she was sexually abused in childhood, and she became anorexic, it’s unclear when she was diagnosed with bi-polar, but it seems it was in young adult-hood or thereabouts. It’s safe to assume that she had been medicated for years because of this diagnosis. Once entered into this system of drugging it’s very difficult to get out of it, a lot of the time those who are prescribed psychiatric drugs over long periods of time, end up in a bad way.

This begs the question, who is responsible for her untimely death? Who is responsible for the prescriptions of multiple, mind-bending, personality changing, multiple-side effect psychiatric anti-depressant drugs that she was prescribed?

“…Dr Andrews conducted the toxicology tests and found Ms O’Riordan had a blood alcohol concentration of 330mg and urine alcohol concentration of 397mg.

Traces of four medications used to treat depressive disorders were found in her system but all bar one was within the low therapeutic range.

That fourth drug was found in only a slightly elevated range….”

What were the four medications used to treat depressive disorders that she was prescibed? and why were her psychiatrists not monitoring her and her prescriptions? why was she left alone in such a state with access to multiple psychiatric medications? were the psychiatrists tracking her reactions to the meds she was prescribed over the years?

One of Dolores’s psychiatrists was US psychiatrist Dr Robert Hirschfeld. When you google Hirschfeld, it’s interesting that the third link that comes up is from a blog from an ex-patient of his who seems not too happy with Hirschfeld’s apparent long links to psychiatric drug manufacturers.

“….Here’s a nice little tidbit. The questionnaire was “adapted with permission from Robert M.A. Hirschfeld, M.D.” So as an uninformed patient reading this (which I was at the time), I’m thinking, “Oh, this must be legit since they got permission from a doctor to use this checklist.”

There’s more than meets the eye here.

“….On the surface, Dr. Hirschfeld seems like an awesome doctor – and he very well may be. Dr Hirschfeld’s bio from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) extols the “Professor and Chair” of its psychiatry deparment. He has history of working with various national organizations such as the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). He’s written all kinds of articles and blah blah blah. He’s considered a leader in his research of bipolar disorder.

In fact, because Dr. Hirschfeld is so great, he’s a member of pharmaceutical boards and has acted as a consultant for pharmaceutical companies, according to ISI Highly Cited.com. Some of our favorite guys appear here: Pfizer, Wyeth, Abbott Labs., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Forest Labs, Janssen, and – lookee here! – GSK…..”

Most people don’t realize that bio-psychiatrists, like the ones who treated Dolores, are not concerned with helping their patients deal with trauma of personal problems. They are fixated on the brain of the ‘mentally ill’ person and not their emotions, or feelings. They treat the brain, not the person. I didn’t realize this myself, until I came off psychiatric drugs some years ago, and researched psychiatry and the drugs industry. I was absolutely shocked and appalled when I realized that psychiatrists were beholden to the drugs industry and saw no problem with selling themselves to the industry to make money. I was shocked to see that drug companies have been hiding side effects for years with many of their drugs, and that many tens of thousands of people’s lives were being destroyed due to the over-medicalization of human distress.

Ultimately, alcohol was deemed responsible for her untimely death, however it would seem to me that psychiatric drugs were a massive factor also. Anti-depressants don’t mix well with alcohol, I know this from personal experience, they also can make people crave alcohol sometimes, (to take the edge off). Of course- psychiatrists and the drug’s industry play down these side effects- they play down all side effects, because it’s in their interest to keep you, and everyone else, on these drugs. It’s not in your interest, it’s in theirs.

It seems to me that Dolores was just another victim of a psychiatric system that is completely corrupted by the pharmaceutical industry, and sees patients as mere fodder. It’s very easy to entrap vulnerable people in this system of continual over-diagnoses, mis-diagnosis and drugging, and it seems that Dolores fell foul of the all too usual trajectory of :

Texas church shooter Devin Patrick Kelley served in Air Force, was court-martialed for assaulting wife, child

Devin Patrick Kelley allegedly opened fire in the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas killing at least 26.

Shocked former classmates who attended middle and high school with Texas church gunman Devin Patrick Kelley described him Monday as being heavily medicated and someone who kept to himself — despite a deluge of posts on his apparent Facebook profile about weapons and atheism.

A former middle school classmate told Fox News that Kelley would complain about his parents and medications during school.

Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, of New Braunfels, Texas as pictured in his driver license photo. (Texas Department of Public Safety)

“His parents had him on high doses of ‘psych’ meds from 6th to 9th grade, the time I knew him,” said the student, who only wished to be identified as Reid.

The student also said Kelley often posted on his Facebook page about his assault rifle and atheism, and that “a lot of friends quit talking to him by senior year.”

Courtney Kleiber, a New Braunfels High School student who identified herself as Kelley’s “best friend for a number of years,” said in a Facebook discussion about the shooting that Kelley once was heavily involved with the First Baptist Church.

“Great, now I can’t even look through my senior yearbook without seeing this,” she posted on her Facebook page late Sunday, next to a picture of her and Kelley.

Another classmate who spoke to Fox News and wished to remain anonymous described Kelley as a quiet student, though he had his share of friends.

“He recently added me on [Facebook]. I accepted hence we went to school together, and any time I saw him on my timeline he was sharing stuff about guns and being atheist,” she said. “He was pretty negative. The last post I remember was of a rifle.”

Kelley’s Facebook page has since been taken down.

Chatter amongst other students on Facebook who say they knew Kelley suggested he had a volatile relationship with his parents.

One student said Kelley used to tell her about issues with his dad, while another said they watched Kelley verbally abuse his parents.

Kelley was also a member of his high school’s football team, Reid said. One student said Kelley’s father would go “crazy” if Kelley messed up on the field.

Investigators work at the scene of a deadly shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Sunday Nov. 5, 2017. (AP)

Brittany Adcock, a 22-year-old who told NBC News that she dated Kelley for two months when she was 13 and he was 18, said Kelley would constantly call her after she broke off the relationship.

“He would offer me money to hang out with him quite a bit. There has been one point that I called the police because he was just calling me so much I wanted to report harassment,” Adcock told the network. “One time he told me I should move in with him and his wife and that he would take care of me as long as I walked around topless.”

Kelley had previously served in the U.S. Air Force, and was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until his discharge in 2014, an Air Force spokesperson confirmed to Fox News.

He was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his wife and his child, and later received a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force, in addition to confinement for 12 months, and was reduced in rank.

Investigators work at the scene of a deadly shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Sunday Nov. 5, 2017. (AP)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said there was a connection between the “very deranged individual” and the church where the slayings took place, telling “FOX & Friends” that people will learn about a link.

“I don’t think the church was just randomly attacked,” he said. “I think there was a reason why the shooter chose this church.”

The gunman was also denied a Texas gun permit, according to Abbott.

“He was rejected either because he did not fully answer all the questions that are required to get a Texas gun permit, or he answered those questions wrong, that we still don’t know,” he said.

Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt told Fox News that Kelley’s former father-in-law did attend the First Baptist Church, but he and his wife were not there Sunday.

His ex-mother-in-law’s P.O. Box was also listed as having a mailing address in Sutherland Springs, the Daily Beast reported.

Kelley previously registered to vote in Colorado in 2014 and listed his address as a parking space in a RV park in Colorado Springs, according to the New York Times.

A woman who lived in the spot next to the address said a man of similar age and description lived in that space for a few months during that time, and that he had a pit bull puppy that was left tied up in the sun all day.

She told the New York Times that there was an incident where police were called because the man — who she never learned the name of — struck the dog in the head, leading to a standoff with police in which the man refused to come out of his trailer for an hour.

Kelley worked as a security guard for a Texas waterpark this past summer, according to a resume under his name that appeared online.

The suspect, who is from New Braunfels, a suburb outside San Antonio, was found dead in his car after he sped away from the scene of the shooting and was chased by two Good Samaritans.

Tackitt told Fox News on Monday authorities believe the gunshot wound that ultimately killed Kelley was “self-inflicted,” however, there was also an exchange of gunfire before and during the case.

“All I know is he stopped another resident right over here and said, ‘Lets go we got an active shooter, we need to get him stopped,’ and they were chasing him,” he said. “They were shooting rounds at him and then he went off the road, we don’t know if he was actually hit again or what, but wrecked out. He was from my understanding self-inflicted gun shot wound.”

Las Vegas Shooter Case: Valium, Other Drugs Raise Red Flags

Public records reveal Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was prescribed the anti-anxiety drug Valium. He may have also been taking an antidepressant.

Valium, which is the trade name for Diazepam, is an anti-anxiety medication that is one of a number of drugs classified as a benzodiazepine, nicknamed “Benzo.” Others include Xanax, Klonopin and Ativan.

Breggin believes in Paddock’s case, his drug use could be the key to what led to his killing rampage. Breggin said Valium “can cause impulsivity, disinhibition, or loss of self-control resulting in violence.”

Breggin said he recieved an unconfirmed reports that Paddock “was prescribed antidepressants, which are commonly given along with Benzos.” If true, that likely exacerbated the situation, according to Breggin. However that link might never be known because while physicians must report benzodiazepine presecriptions to the Prescription Monitoring Program, they are not required to do so when prescribing antidepressants, Breggin said.

Earlier, Breggin told CBN News he believes psychiatric drugs play a larger role in mass killings than most in the medical community are willing to admit.

Like Breggin, pharmacist Suzy Cohen thinks the link between Paddock’s Valium prescription and the mass killing is more significant than many within the medical community are willing to admit.

“He was either on a benzo or had just gotten off one,” Cohen told CBN, referring to the danger of not only taking these drugs, but also of stopping their use too fast.

She said although we might never know why Paddock became a mass killer with little to no warning signs, she said taking a benzodiazepine is “the fastest way to go from a normal, good citizen to insane at the drop of a hat.”

She continued, “I’m certainly not blaming Valium for a gunman gone mad; millions of people take these types of drugs without becoming psychotic. But I will share this with you: in a 2015 World Psychiatry study, 960 Finnish adults and teens convicted of homicide proved that the odds of them killing someone were 45% higher during time frame they took benzodiazepines. And one year prior, researchers in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry concluded: ‘It appears that benzodiazepine use is moderately associated with subsequent aggressive behavior.'”

Cohen said although Paddock’s drug use raises red flags, more must be known about it to understand the connection to the Las Vegas killings. “Did he stay on it? Did he take more than prescribed? Did he combine it with other psychoactive medications? Did he suddenly stop it after taking such a high dose?” she questioned, “Unfortunately, these are questions for which we might never find answers.”

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Irish singer, Sinead O’ Connor, has hit the headlines again, with an impassioned and heartbreaking cry for help to her family through an online video. In distressing and harrowing Facebook posts over the last few weeks, Sinead has been crying out for her family to reach out to her. From the videos and messages she has been posting for almost two years now, it is obvious that Sinead is in a very bad state, and has been for at least a decade, but what has her led her to this crisis?

How did one of the most talented, and famous, female singers- in the world- end up alone, isolated, and severely ‘mentally ill’ to the point of suicide, in a motel in the outskirts of New Jersey?

Sinead, now 50, has been ‘under the care’ of psychiatry (that’s if you could call it ‘care’), and under the ‘treatment’ of psychiatric drugs for years, and if her recent video is anything to go by, the effects of this (mis) treatment have utterly destroyed her mental and physical health, her relationships with family and friends, and possibly her career, and her life too.

Sinead is one of milions (globally) destroyed by the polypharmacy medication merry go round of psychiatric drug treatment. Those of us that have been through this system of psychiatric drugging and mis-treatment (and suffered side effects which made our condition worse), know all too well the dire consequences of it. It’s difficult to see, or to understand, the damage been done to you while you are in it. The meds keep you sedated, and suppressed, so much so that you can be completely unaware. Tragically, people like Sinead end up stuck in the psychiatric system, not realizing that the system itself is damaging them, but so vulnerable that they are helpless to get out of its grip.

Robert Whitaker’s book ‘Anatomy of an epidemic‘ details the results of mass drugging of the population, and the outcomes are not good, in fact they are extremely grim, particularly for those who have been medicated long term…

“…Whitaker has persuaded me that American psychiatry, in collusion with the pharmaceutical industry, may be perpetrating the biggest case of iatrogenesis—harmful medical treatment–in history….” (Scientific American)

Leonie Fennell did an excellent post about Sinead and her experiences with psychiatry 4 years ago-

“….Here’s a recent clip of Sinead O’Connor speaking on her treatment by an Irish Psychiatrist.

Sinead says that she was misdiagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and subsequently prescribed ‘toxic’ doses of Lamictal (400mgs) and Amitriptyline (200mgs). She describes her psychiatrist as a horrible ‘b’ who did not inform her of the side-effects while on the drugs, or while coming off them.

Dishing out the pills is always the first-line treatment for people that psychiatry see as ‘abnormal’. Sinead O’Connor is perfectly normal by the way, and fabulously outspoken; she didn’t need fixing! Strange that dangerous drugs can be given to a person for years for an ‘illness’ which didn’t exist. Never mind all that comes with that, not least the weight gain, depersonalization, worsening depression and huge expense; would any other profession get away with such sloppy work? Reported adverse effects of these drugs on the RxISK website: Lamictal and Amitriptyline.

In the video above, Sinead seems to be aware that the medications she’s being prescribed are toxic, as she details the various side effects she has had over the years, however it seems that she is stuck in the psychiatric system, without realizing that it is in fact- the psychiatric system that is the problem.

“They are extremely debilitating drugs. Tiring to the extreme. Ironically, extremely depressing. They can cause suicidal or self-harm type thinking. They can mess up your menstrual cycle very badly and cause you to be incapacitated for a week before.

Sinead will only get better when she gets away from the psychiatric system and the regime of drugging that the psychiatrists subject patients to. The psychiatric survivor movement is now global, and I hope that Sinead doesn’t end up just another casualty of mass psychiatric drugging. I hope she gets off the psych drugs, and then she can start her journey of healing.

If you haven’t heard the song ‘Troy’ from Sinead’s first album – The Lion and The Cobra- you really should, it’s spine-tingling. It’s Sinead at the height of her creative power, only 19 at the time. Compare that with the video from her facebook cry for help -above (30 years later), and bear witness to the damage that over a decade of psychiatric ill- treatment and psychiatric drugging does to an individual.

Misguided mental health system needs an overhaul

Esteban Santiago is taken from the Broward County main jail as he is transported to the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., January 9, 2017. Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via REUTERS

The glaring failures surrounding Esteban Santiago, resulting in the tragic killing of five people and wounding of eight others in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, prompts me to make some points about our misguided mental health system.

First, psychiatrists have no ability to predict who is going to be violent. In a Jan. 3, 2013, Washington Post article, “Predicting violence is a work in progress,” after reviewing the research, writer David Brown, reported:

• “There is no instrument that is specifically useful or validated for identifying potential school shooters or mass murderers.”

• “The best-known attempt to measure violence in mental patients found that mental illness by itself didn’t predict an above-average risk of being violent.”

• “(S)tudies have shown psychiatrists’ accuracy in identifying patients who would become violent was slightly better than chance.”

• “(T)he presence of a mental disorder (is) only a small contributor to risk, outweighed by other factors such as age, previous violent acts, alcohol use, impulsivity, gang membership and lack of family support.”

Second, the mental health system clearly did not help Santiago. The system is fundamentally misdirected towards drug treatment for the completely unproven, and likely untrue, theory that what gets diagnosed as mental illness is the result of some brain defect.

It seems fair to assume what would most likely have benefited Santiago was help dealing with his traumatic war experiences. Because of patient confidentiality we don’t know, but it seems likely Santiago was instead just given psychiatric drugs.

Third, it is known psychiatric drugs are the cause of just the sort of inexplicable mass-shootings perpetrated by Santiago. As the International Society of Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry said in a statement following the Sandy Hook school massacre:

• Christopher Pittman was on antidepressants when he killed his grandparents.

• Eric Harris, one of the gunmen in the Columbine High School shooting, was taking Luvox. His partner, Dylan Klebold, had taken Zoloft and Paxil.

• Doug Williams, who killed five and wounded nine of his fellow Lockheed Martin employees, was on Zoloft and Celexa.

• Michael McDermott was on three antidepressants when he fired off 37 rounds and killed seven of his fellow employees in the Massachusetts Wakefield massacre.

• Kip Kinkel was on Prozac when he killed his parents and then killed two children and wounded 25 at a nearby school.

• In 14 recent school shootings, acts committed by persons taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs resulted in over 100 wounded and 58 killed.

• In other school shootings, information about the shooter’s prescription drug use and other medical history were kept from public records.

Fourth, the over-reliance on psychiatric drugs is extremely harmful and counterproductive. These drugs are so physically harmful that those diagnosed with serious mental illness by the mental health system have a lower life expectancy of 20-25 years.

In addition, it has been shown a noncoercive approach, that selectively uses neuroleptics (mismarketed as “antipsychotics”), can achieve an 80 percent recovery rate, while our system of “drugs for everyone forever” results in only a 5 percent recovery rate.

Dr. Loren Mosher, former chief of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia at the National Institute of Mental Health, testified in one of my cases that he probably had more experience with unmedicated psychotics than anyone alive. He said he has never had to involuntarily commit anyone because he always made it a point to establish a relationship with his patient so they could agree on a course of action.

He testified that if somebody was about to do grievous harm he would stop them in any way needed, but he had never had to because of his approach.

Locking people up and drugging them against their will is not the answer. In addition to the drugs, the violence against patients by the mental health system begets violence from some of them.

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We need noncoercive programs that help people deal with their problems and the traumatic events in their lives. We need to make people feel safe, listen to what they are telling us are their problems, and what assistance they would like.

Even the craziest person is telling us something useful if we take the time to listen and interpret. There are places that successfully do not use force against psychiatric patients.

We should start doing what works and provide noncoercive, truly helpful services for people diagnosed with serious mental illness.

Jim Gottstein was a plaintiffs’ attorney in the 1 million-acre mental health lands trust litigation, resulting in the creation of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. For the past 14 years, he has donated his services to the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights. He has won five Alaska Supreme Court cases regarding involuntary commitment and forced drugging on the grounds both are unconstitutional or illegal.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com.

The terrorist who killed 84 people including at least 10 children in Nice had suffered from ‘psychological problems’, it has been revealed.

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, a French Tunisian and married father of three, had suffered a nervous breakdown and received medical treatment for mental health issues for ‘several years’ before leaving Tunisia for France in 2005, his family said today.

Bouhlel was shot dead by police after he ploughed a lorry into crowds of people who had gathered on the city’s Promenade des Anglais to watch Bastille Day fireworks. The attack left 202 people injured, including 50 who are ‘between life and death’, according to President Francois Hollande.

Five people connected to Bouhlel have been questioned as part of the police investigation, including his estranged wife Hajer.

Previous reports suggested Bouhlel was depressed about the break up of his marriage before he mounted the pavements at high speed and careered into the revelers on Thursday night.

The killer’s father, Monthir Bouhlel, claimed his son suffered from psychological problems and was sometimes unstable. “He had some difficult times, I took him to a psychiatrist, he took his treatments and he said he had a serious mental illness.

“For four years, from 2002 to 2004 he had problems, he had a nervous breakdown. He would get very angry, and would break things for no reason, he was put on medication. But the one thing he did not get angry about was religion, he did not go to mosque, he drank.”

Some interesting news coming out about the Nice Van Attack Terrorist, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. According to some news outlets he was receiving psychological and psychiatric treatment for ‘several years’ before he carried out the attack.

Psychiatric and psychological treatment, almost always, means the prescribing of psychiatric drugs. If Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was prescribed psychiatric drugs for several years, it would be interesting to find out what drugs they were, on what dose was he prescribed them, and for how long?

Psychiatric drugs (such as anti-depressants like Seroxat, and anti-psychotics) are notorious for causing psychotic, manic and homicidal/violent/aggression reactions. The BBC are currently investigating the violence aspect of anti-depressants for a forthcoming documentary, according to Katinka Blackford Newman (author of a new book about her personal experience of SSRI’s and the devastation she suffered because of them).

It will be interesting if we find out what psychiatric drugs the Nice terrorist was on, and if these drugs contributed to this terribly violent act.

My heart goes out to all those who died, and to the injured, and their families, from the Nice tragedy. I have been to Nice several times (growing up we used to camp near Nice) and I have an affinity with that part of the world.

The websites AntiDepAware and SSRI Stories have both been documenting medication induced violence etc for years…

“….Winehouse had been taking Seroxat, an anti-depressant, since age 14. After a messy breakup with a bad-influence boyfriend named Blake Fielder – coupled with the constant media frenzy – Winehouse stopped eating and started drinking heavily. One scene at the recording studio shows her nursing a whiskey in between takes. She is bulimic, disappearing mid-rehearsal, leaving the studio’s toilet bowl splattered with that day’s lunch, and returning with eye makeup smeared across her face. Over the course of the documentary, her full, round voluptuous body becomes withered and sickly. In the beginning, we see her dangling a bag of weed in front of the camera before performing a big concert. To get high and relax a little, presumably. But later in the movie, she and Fielder are doing cocaine, crack-cocaine and heroin regularly. She was 23…”

“…Often I don’t know what I do, then the next day the memory returns. And then I am engulfed in shame.’ The troubled star also discussed her battle with depression, which she had suffered since the age of 16. ‘I saw a picture of myself when I came out of the hospital. I didn’t recognise myself,’ admitted Winehouse. ‘Since I was 16, I’ve felt a black cloud hangs over me. Since then, I have taken pills for depression.”..

“…An influential study which claimed that an antidepressant drug was safe for children and adolescents failed to report the true numbers of young people who thought of killing themselves while on it, re-analysis of the trial has found

Study 329, into the effects of GlaxoSmithKline’s drug paroxetine on under-18s, was published in 2001 and later found to be flawed. In 2003, the UK drug regulator instructed doctors not to prescribe paroxetine – sold as Seroxat in the UK and Paxil in the US – to adolescents. ..”

I have just finished watching the recently released, brilliant documentary on Amy Winehouse ( simply called ‘Amy’). I really liked her music (particularly Back to Black), she was a true original, and she was a really interesting woman too. She was extremely smart, savvy, charismatic and a great lyricist. Musically she was always superb, but I liked the documentary as it revealed Amy’s personality and we get to see real footage of Amy behind the stage image and the media-constructed persona. The film is also interspersed with stories from her close friends over the years, and this adds to the authenticity of it. It’s very sad that she succumbed to addictions, and her demise was profoundly tragic: the kind that is symptomatic of hugely influential people who die in harrowing circumstances at the height of their talent and fame. The paparazzi also played their dark part in her life (as they did with Princess Diana) in hounding Amy to her grave.

I also found it interesting to learn that Amy was put on Seroxat when she was a teenager, and apparently she was prescribed it for depression. Having been prescribed Seroxat myself at a young age (21) I can’t help but wonder did Seroxat have any affect on Amy’s development? And also, could it be possible, that for some, Seroxat (and other SSRI’s) can become a kind of ‘gateway’ drug?

Seroxat is extremely powerful and potent, highly addictive, and in many ways resembles a narcotic (with ‘hypnotic’ type qualities). It changes your personality, and your behavior, and personally, I believe, that after experiencing such a dangerous psychotropic, this can alter a person’s psyche in many ways too. Seroxat does not cure depression, and in many cases it can exacerbate depression and anxiety, and Seroxat often prolongs the time it takes to recover from depression because it offers only a chemical distraction. Children who are prescribed drugs like Seroxat are given a signal by adults that its appropriate to deal with your emotional issues with potent drugs. This could arguably harm a child’s development, not to mention set them up for much more trouble down the line. It could also perhaps lead them to take other drugs, such as cannabis, heroin, cocaine etc because they would have been introduced to addiction, or dependence, through taking a drug which induces these effects early in their lives.

Addiction counselors often talk of cannabis being a ‘gateway drug’ in youth- it’s arguable then perhaps that extremely strong, addictive, mind-bending- drugs like Seroxat could also serve that function. I also believe that alcohol and nicotine could also play their part in wiring kids brains for other addictions later on, but a drug like Seroxat is perhaps an even bigger gateway drug for a young person, because it’s sanctioned, and legally prescribed, by an adult (doctor/professional/psychiatrist etc), in the guise of help and healing, therefore this would re-enforce the drug as a ‘gateway’ both psychologically as well as psychically.

“..In a 2007 interview followed her first highly publicized overdoses, she speaks candidly about her depression. “Since I was 16, I’ve felt a black cloud hangs over me,” she said. “Since then, I have taken pills for depression. I believe there are lots of people who have these mood changes.”

A reanalysis of a Seroxat (in children) study published in the BMJ in 2015 (study 329) confirmed what Seroxat users, and ex-users, have been saying for decades- this drug is highly dangerous and largely ineffective. Furthermore not only is a drug like Seroxat useless for depression, a possible gate-way drug, and also- most likely- delays recovery, but it also can cause suicide, self harm, violence etc. It’s simply lethal.

Amy Winehouse was (like many other kids)- a Seroxat guinea pig.

The adults, and young adults, who took it were too.

I was a Seroxat guinea pig too (thanks GSK!)

I don’t know how long Amy was prescribed Seroxat, but she says herself in this documentary that she was prescribed it and it made her ‘loopy'(crazy) so who knows what affect Seroxat had on her early development, or on her attitude to drugs later on? It’s unclear if Amy took other SSRI’s or psychiatric drugs after Seroxat, or if she suffered withdrawals etc. It’s also unclear what age she was first prescribed anti-depressants, in some articles it says she was just 13 years old, in others 14, 15, or 16..

What is clear though is: Amy Winehouse deserved better ‘mental health’ treatment, I deserved better too, we all did..

Seroxat shouldn’t have been prescribed to anyone…

The irony of Amy’s death was that, despite almost killing herself with cocaine and heroin, and going through various detoxes, and rehab for those Class A drugs, it was alcohol (a legal drug) and Librium (a prescription drug-benzo) that killed her in the end..

SSRI’s often don’t show up on toxicology reports, and it can take repeated tests to find traces of anti-depressants. Amy could have been taking anti-depressants well into her 20’s and up until her death, she could have been experiencing cravings for alcohol to take the edge off the side effects.. she could have been going through various psych-drug withdrawal symptoms and side effects over the years.. the only way to know would be to see her medical records…

“…Mitch Winehouse has said that he believes his daughter died after a seizure, related to the drug Librium.

Amy Winehouse was prescribed the tranquilizer to ‘calm’ her withdrawal symptoms from alcohol, but it has been linked with the deaths of a number of people, including Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland.”

Perhaps if she wasn’t prescribed Seroxat, and instead was given compassion, empathy, and a listening ear when she needed it as a teenager, things could have turned out a lot different? Who knows?..

Amy became disruptive in class and began to play truant, as had Kurt Cobain.

Amy came to dislike singing the songs that had made her famous

She pierced her upper lip and her mother was horrified when, aged 15, she had her first tattoo done.

Amy later said, ‘My parents pretty much realised (at that stage) that I would do whatever I wanted.’

But even before she had left school and entered the music business she had begun taking antidepressants, with Janis suggesting that she might be bipolar.

Later she would begin self-harming, cutting herself to get attention.

Success arrived quickly after that troubled childhood and, as with the six other principal members of the 27 Club, it proved overwhelming.

Her surgeon cousin Jonathan Winehouse became concerned early on after seeing her perform and meeting her backstage: ‘She was very distant… and really sort of out of it.’

He told her manager that she needed psychological support, but the manager simply said that Amy would go her own way.

After her first album, Frank, was released in 2003, when she was still only 20, Amy began to drink to excess. A nervous performer, she drank to calm down before a show, but then, like Janis Joplin, another troubled and insecure female singing star who lined up glasses of tequila during concerts, she began drinking during the show.

And when she wasn’t performing, Amy went to the pub, the Good Mixer in Camden becoming her second home.

She’d arrive shortly after it opened and usually drank doubles of Jack Daniel’s, sambuca, vodka or tequila. After a while, she was drinking everything mixed together in a pint glass.

Like this:

“….The message [of the movement] is transparency. My message has always been transparency. Honesty is a healer. If you aren’t being honest and transparent, you aren’t dealing with the root of the problem. In turn, our honesty and transparency inspires that in others. It’s a very contagious thing. It’s sad that it’s not our normal, but I’m hoping this movement changes that.”

After The Mighty published an article about Jones’ medication selfie on Wednesday, September 2, Jones received hundreds of messages from people thanking her for saying what they needed to hear. Jones estimates that she’s heard from at least 50 people who’ve told her they’ve filled a prescription, made an appointment to see a doctor or otherwise sought help because of her message.

To know that by just being honest about my shortcomings, all of these people are receiving the help they need, is very humbling and overwhelming,’ Ms Jones said.

And now Ms Jones’ message, shared via The Mighty, has sparked a worldwide social media campaign, with mental illness sufferers from across the globe sharing their own images using her hashtags.

‘It gave her the idea of starting a hashtag for people to share their medication and prescription selfies, and after collaborating with The Mighty, she started the hashtag #MedicatedAndMighty,’ The Mighty explained about the campaign.

‘#MedicatedAndMighty has created a space for people to talk about their medication and help erase the stigma surrounding asking for help in the form of a prescription.

‘For ]Ms] Jones, it’s also a reminder of the strength in community and the power of solidarity.’

I was originally alerted to this story through the Rxisk.org Twitter feed (screenshots above). Just so people know that I didn’t just pluck it out of thin air! But maybe it’s just a coincidence that the “Medicated And Mighty” hashtag goes viral from a new social media (content/marketing) website called TheMighty (which intends to profit from Pharma affiliations of its human interest health stories).

Personally, I believe that Erin Jones’s (‘Mutha Lovin Autism’ blogger’s) original blog post was written with good intent and I believe she is sincere, and I don’t for a second think she did anything underhanded or untoward, however I would be a little cynical about the involvement of The Mighty web site in this hashtag campaign. What is this website gaining from promoting this story? What is it gaining from participating in a viral campaign like this? It is a business, after all…

Marketing companies hijacking, distorting, or jumping on board- genuine human interest stories and viral internet campaigns- are nothing new, but we are talking about the endorsement of very serious psycho-tropic medications here; they are not candy and they should never be treated as such. The side effects of these meds should be highlighted in this campaign too and the involvement of The Mighty (in whatever capacity) in the campaign should have been explicit from the very beginning.

For those of us involved in spreading awareness of the dangers of psychiatric medications through Twitter, most would be aware by now of the ‘#MedicatedAndMighty’ hashtag campaign and the so called ‘#Pillshaming’ campaign. The idea behind both campaigns was apparently to end the stigma of taking psychiatric medication for ‘mental illnesses’. I have to say, I agree with what Rxisk.org tweeted, ‘real progressives de-stigmatize people not corp products’ (anti-depressants). People should be defending the right to choose, one side (pro or anti-med) is not better than the other, this is not a war, or a fight between sides, and anyhow, there are many shades of grey, this debate is far from black and white.

This debate is still ongoing on twitter, and it can get quite heated at times. I never thought that taking medication was a weakness at all, however I do think that there is a lot of stigma and misinformation around about psychiatric treatments (but most of that is perpetuated by the psychiatric profession and the pharmaceutical industry not by the public). I believe stigma comes mainly from misunderstanding the human condition.

Personally I think both campaigns are a little immature too (and perhaps misguided) and they seem to appeal mostly to a very young demographic of teenagers, which is kind of worrying considering psychiatric drugs are particularly dangerous in these age groups (the SSRI antidepressants like Seroxat can cause increases in suicide and self harm). I don’t think that setting people up into pro and anti-med camps helps anyone either to be honest. I have nothing against anyone taking medication, I took it myself (Seroxat) at one point, unfortunately I wasn’t warned of the horrible side effects at the time (that’s why I started this blog), but I am not against anyone who takes anti-depressants, and I fully respect anyone’s right to choose, and I always have. I’m not even anti-medication, however I believe that doctors and pharmaceutical companies don’t warn adequately about the side effects, and many people are misinformed, and the long term damage can be harrowing for many people.

I understand though that this campaign is giving vulnerable people a sense of validation and empowerment though, and I respect that, however I would hate also to think that vulnerable people are being led up the garden path. Leading people to medication without warning them of the wide range of side effects and dangers is irresponsible.

The story of how ‘#Medicated And Mighty’ began was apparently from a blogger mother (of Mutha Lovin Authism blog) of an Autistic child who takes medication for depression and anxiety. The idea seemed to go viral on the internet over a week and has even made some major news network content.

However, perhaps this campaign isn’t as organic and wholesome as it appears?

A content site based in Los Angeles designed for “a community of people who are thrown a curveball.” And today it’s announcing a $2.5 million seed round led by Upfront Ventures.

“…As for how the Mighty plans to bring in that revenue, Porath says they’ll be running ads from consumer brands and pharmaceutical companies...”

“....If you think about it from a pharmaceutical perspective, if they’re able to basically get a new client, someone who is using their drug. that person may use their drug for the next 20 years. That rate is much much higher than if you are selling soap.”…

I don’t think there is any shame in taking psychiatric medications, but people need to know the full dangers and they should be given informed consent about side effects, withdrawal symptoms etc. Furthermore, if this campaign was originally funded, or partly conceived, by a marketing company (linked to the Mighty website) then I think that people who are supporting this viral hashtag deserve to know that.

I am sure Erin probably had good intentions when she joined up with The Mighty website to spread her message about medications for mental illness and I’m sure she aimed to dispel the stigma and more power to her for that, but I can’t help thinking how this must have been a pharmaceutical company’s wet dream (and also a boon for the web site itself).

Was Erin used? Were we all set up against each other? Pro-med Vers Anti-med? (just for the record I am not anti-med, but I am anti-pharmaceutical lies).

Psychiatric medications are nothing to be ashamed of, however making these potentially dangerous and toxic drugs somehow cool, or trendy, is a bit worrying, in my opinion. I also find the premise of The Mighty website (which aims to profit off human interest stories about health) a little bit creepy (particularly after reading the article at the bottom of this post).

Furthermore, I would be concerned that this ‘pro medication’ viral campaign came shorty after the headline news that Paxil harms kids more than we were led to believe, and also the news recently that medications like Paxil (and SSRI’s in general) can make young people much more prone to violence.

Here’s the article anyhow ( from May 2015) which explains much more about what The Mighty are all about:

How health site “The Mighty” thinks it can build the next big content platform without selling its soul to Facebook

When Mike Porath’s daughter was diagnosed with a chromosome disorder that includes autism and other challenges, he spent a lot of time on WebMD.

“But WebMD didn’t cover the day-to-day challenges and the emotional side,” said Porath. There was no digital equivalent, he felt, to the indispensable routine of talking to other families that are going through the same thing. And so with a CV that includes being editor-in-chief at AOL, an executive at SpinMedia, and a journalist for the New York Times and NBC News, Porath felt he had the content and platform chops to build the solution himself.

Enter The Mighty: A content site based in Los Angeles designed for “a community of people who are thrown a curveball.” And today it’s announcing a $2.5 million seed round led by Upfront Ventures.

“For a long time I believed in contributor networks as a business model,” Porath said. “Why this works for us is we’re based on experiences and those are unique to individuals.” That means the contributions on the Mighty aren’t simply rewrites of the day’s news or embed posts of the most popular videos on Reddit or YouTube that any J-School intern could write. The content here is made up of truly unique stories readers can’t find anywhere else and that can’t be easily reaggregated by competitors.

The words “unpaid contributors,” however, should come as a red flag for many media observers. Sites that scale affordably on freely provided content — whether that means a social network like Facebook or a more traditional media site Bleacher Report — have rightly come under scrutiny. In the Mighty’s case, this concern is arguably amplified by the fact that these writers are in emotionally and financially vulnerable positions, and nobody wants to be accused of taking advantage of these contributors. But Porath argues that, unlike something like Bleacher Report where the contributors are aspiring journalists whose career is in writing, his contributors truly want to tell their stories on a platform that can amplify these pieces of content to large audiences. None of them have asked about payment, he says, and if any do ask about compensation, it’s in the form of charitable donations.

“Once we have revenue we can start distributing that to non-profits where a percentage of the revenue can flow back into the non-profit of [the writer’s] choice.”

As for how the Mighty plans to bring in that revenue, Porath says they’ll be running ads from consumer brands and pharmaceutical companies.

“Health brings in much higher ad rates,” Porath says, explaining how WebMD has been able to achieve the same revenues as sites with far greater traffic. After all, a reader on a story about a very specific disorder is likely in a very specific market for health products. “If you think about it from a pharmaceutical perspective, if they’re able to basically get a new client, someone who is using their drug. that person may use their drug for the next 20 years. That rate is much much higher than if you are selling soap.”

Along with the issue of unpaid contributors, there’s another concern about I have about the Mighty: Accuracy. If an unpaid contributor at, say, Buzzfeed writes a misinformed article about Buffy the Vampire Slayer there’s no harm except maybe to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s pride. But if an unpaid contributor at the Mighty writes about, I don’t know, vaccines, and communicates misinformation, is there an editorial process in place to catch any outright falsehoods?

Porath assures me that nothing goes on the site without first being factchecked by his editorial staff, which he plans to expand with the new seed round. That’s reassuring, though it’s worth noting that when it comes to health stories, even an outlet as prestigious and well-respected as the New York Times makes mistakes.

Concerns aside, Porath’s model is undoubtedly compelling: A passionate community of readers and writers, a vertical that brings in ad dollars as higher rates than others, and content that can’t be found anywhere else. Porath is so confident that he’s not striking the devil’s bargain with Facebook that so many other content properties have struck.

“Many other sites are paying Facebook to boost stories to get traffic. We are not. As we grow, we’re becoming less dependent on Facebook.”

Hey, if the Mighty can show a provable content model without being beholden to Facebook, that will be a boon in and of itself.

‘More Harm than Good’ conference can be watched live

CEP is pleased to announce that its upcoming conference More Harm than Good: Confronting the Psychiatric Medication Epidemic will be ‘live streamed’ via YouTube on 18 September. This means that anyone with an Internet connection can watch the conference for free in real time. In addition, each of the talks will be filmed and posted onto the CEP website for later viewing.

There are two streams to view. The first starts at 9am BST (GMT+1) and will record the morning session. The address is:

When:18 September 2015Where: Whitelands College, University of Roehampton, London SW15 5PU (how to find us)

Cost: £85 for delegates, £28 for psychiatric trainees only. We are afraid there are no more £28 places for other students, patients or their families.

This conference counts for 7 hours of CPD and we can provide CPD certificates on the day.

Speakers and panellists include:

Robert Whitaker

Robert Whitaker is an award-winning science journalist & author, a former fellow of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University in Boston and founder of the influential e-zine madinamerica.com. He is is the author of five books: Mad in America, The Mapmaker’s Wife, On the Laps of Gods, Anatomy of an Epidemic and most recently Psychiatry Under the Influence (with Lisa Cosgrove). His newspaper and magazine articles on the mentally ill and the pharmaceutical industry have garnered several national awards, including a George Polk Award for medical writing and a National Association of Science Writers Award for best magazine article. A series he co-wrote for the Boston Globe on the abuse of mental patients in research settings was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

Prof Peter Gøtzsche

Peter C. Gøtzsche is a professor in clinical research design & analysis, and a specialist in internal medicine. He graduated as a master of science in biology and chemistry in 1974 and as a physician 1984. He worked with clinical trials and regulatory affairs in the drug industry 1975-1983, and at hospitals in Copenhagen 1984-95. He co-founded The Cochrane Collaboration in 1993 and established The Nordic Cochrane Centre the same year. He became professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis in 2010 at the University of Copenhagen. Peter has published more than 70 papers in “the big five” (BMJ, Lancet, JAMA, Ann Intern Med and N Engl J Med) and his scientific works have been cited over 15,000 times. He is the author of four books, most recently Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial (to be published Sep 2015).

Dr Peter Breggin

Peter R. Breggin, MD, has been called “The Conscience of Psychiatry” for his many decades of successful efforts to reform the mental health field. His scientific and educational work has provided the foundation for modern criticism of psychiatric drugs and ECT, and leads the way in promoting more caring and effective therapies. He has authored dozens of scientific articles and more than twenty books including the bestseller Talking Back to Prozac (1994, with Ginger Breggin), Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (2008), and Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Their Families (2013). Dr. Breggin acts as a medical expert in criminal, malpractice and product liability suits, often involving adverse drug effects such as suicide, violence, brain injury, death, and tardive dyskinesia. Dr. Breggin is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former full-time consultant at NIMH. His private practice is in Ithaca, New York where he treats adults, couples, and families with children.

Prof John Abraham

John Abraham is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Science, Health & Medicine at King’s College, London. Initially trained as a mathematician, he worked with the Radical Statistics arm of the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science and then earned three postgraduate degrees: MSc in Science Policy Studies, MA in Sociology and DPhil in Politics. He has published widely in sociology and politics, including four books on sociology of education (e.g. Divide and School: Gender and Class Dynamics in Comprehensive Education) and the politics of food (e.g. Food and Development: The Political Economy of Hunger and the Modern Diet). However, most recently his research has focused entirely on the sociology and politics of pharmaceuticals innovation, safety, efficacy, regulation and cost-effectiveness, especially in the UK, EU and US from the late nineteenth century to the present day.

Dr Joanna Moncrieff

Joanna Moncrieff is a Senior Lecturer in psychiatry at University College London and a practising consultant psychiatrist. She has written articles critical of various psychiatric drug treatments, including lithium, antidepressants and neuroleptics. Joanna has also written about the adverse influence of the pharmaceutical industry on psychiatry. She is also one of the founders and the co-chair of the Critical Psychiatry Network. Joanna’s research consists of an analysis of all aspects of psychiatric drug treatment. She is interested in the nature and function of diagnosis in modern psychiatric practice, and in the history, politics and philosophy of psychiatry more generally. She has also written three books: The Bitterest Pills, published by Palgrave Macmillan, The Myth of the Chemical Cure, published by Palgrave Macmillan, and A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs, published by PCCs books.

Prof Peter Kinderman

Peter Kinderman is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Head of the Institute of Psychology, Health and Society at the University of Liverpool, with over 200 academic staff (32 of them professors) comprising psychiatrists, general practitioners, clinical and other applied psychologists, sociologists, public health physicians, nurses, sociologists and academics. Peter Kinderman’s research activity and clinical work has involved studying serious and enduring mental health problems such as paranoid beliefs and hallucinations, psychological models of mental health and the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions, alternatives to traditional psychiatric and diagnostic approaches and how psychological science can assist public policy in health and social care. Peter Kinderman has an honorary position as Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Mersey Care NHS Trust. He is currently a member of the UK Office for National Statistics’ Technical Advisory Group for the Measuring National Well-being Programme, and served twice as Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology. Peter is also President elect of the British Psychological Society.

Dr James Davies

James Davies is a co-founder of CEP. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 2006 with a PhD in social and medical anthropology. He is a senior lecturer in social anthropology and psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton and is a practicing psychotherapist, having worked for MIND and the NHS.

James has written widely in academe and has delivered lectures at many universities including Harvard, Oxford, Brown, UCL, Columbia (New York), and The New School (New York). James has also written for The Times, The New Scientist, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Harvard Divinity Bulletin and Salon. He is author of three books including Cracked: why psychiatry is doing more harm than good (2013).

Programme:
8.45am Registration9am – 9:45am Introduction followed by James Davies: The origins of the DSM

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Some news out recently from the James Holmes (cinema shooter) trial in Colorado. Two psychiatric medications were found in Holmes’ apartment- Setraline/Zoloft and Clonazepam (a Benzo). The article from CNN doesn’t say what dose Holmes was prescribed of these meds, however Zoloft and Benzos do have serious side effects which included ‘worsening depression’, ‘personality changes’, psychosis, etc etc. It is not known at this point in the trial of James Holmes whether the side effects of these medications have played a part in causing Holmes to murder 12 people and injure scores of others in this horrific mass murder cinema shooting. However, psychiatric medications have long been linked to violence, aggression, suicide, murder, and murder suicide and it will be interesting to hear what the psychiatrist who prescribed these meds to Holmes (Lynne Fenton) says when she testifies…

3. Prescription medicine in Holmes’ apartment

While Holmes’ defense team has not cross-examined any of the survivors who have taken the witness stand, they did question an Aurora police detective who searched Holmes’ apartment.

Detective Thomas Wilson collected several items from the apartment on Paris Street on the day after the shooting.

Wilson seized receipts, a wall hanging, a vehicle title and a backpack, among other evidence — mostly mundane, everyday items that most college students would have hanging around.

However, there were a couple of items the defense chose to point out, some medications collected from a medicine cabinet in Holmes’ bathroom. They included sertraline and clonazepam, both apparently prescribed by an L. Fenton, according to the prescription labels.

“And you recognize that L. Fenton to be the psychiatrist at CU,” defense lawyer Katherine Spengler questioned, emphasizing that Holmes had sought mental health help while he was a grad student at the University of Colorado.

“Yes, ma’am,” Wilson responded.

Sertraline is typically used for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic attacks and social anxiety disorder, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Clonazepam may be used to treat seizures, panic disorders and anxiety.

It’s unknown exactly why Holmes’ had been prescribed these medications. In opening statements, the defense asserted that Holmes lives with schizophrenia.

Lynne Fenton was the mental health professional who treated Holmes longest and is expected to testify at trial

Some of the mystery surrounding the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre has been cleared up — at least as far as the prosecution is concerned — as the sixth week of trial begins to wind down.

Large swathes of James E. Holmes’ strange brown notebook have been read aloud in open court, and the entire volume has been released to the public. Victims, whose names were blacked out of otherwise open court documents, have testified about their pain and loss.
James Holmes speaks: ‘I just considered them numbers really, not people’
James Holmes speaks: ‘I just considered them numbers really, not people’

The jury has heard the 27-year-old acknowledged shooter, who killed 12 people and injured 70, talk about what happened in Theater 9 of the Century 16 multiplex via 22 hours of video recordings played over the last week in Division 201 of the Arapahoe County Justice Center. The entire trial is being live-streamed.

But one voice that has yet to be heard is that of Dr. Lynne Fenton, the psychiatrist who treated Holmes the longest and was the last mental health professional to see him before the July 20, 2012, rampage during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
lRelated
James Holmes wanted to kill ‘as many people as possible’ in Colorado theater rampage

Holmes faces 166 charges, including first-degree murder and attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Fenton was medical director of the student mental health service at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, where Holmes was a graduate student in the neuroscience program.

Fenton saw Holmes several times over the first half of 2012. Their last appointment was on June 11, 2012, around the time he was dropping out of school.

James Holmes’ sealed notebook gets mentioned by prosecution, and defense
James Holmes’ sealed notebook gets mentioned by prosecution, and defense

On July 19, Holmes mailed the psychiatrist his brown, spiral-bound notebook. But she never received the slim volume, with her troubled patient’s plans to “kill as many people as possible” and his strange ramblings.

Fenton is expected to testify during the five-month proceeding, although it is not clear which side she will testify for and whose case she will help most. An exhaustive gag order keeps everyone involved in the trial from speaking outside the courtroom.

But the prosecution has played the video recordings of court-appointed psychiatrist Dr. William Reid prodding Holmes in an effort to assess whether the defendant is sane.

And during those interviews, Holmes talked about his relationship with his former doctor. She was afraid of him, he said, and called campus officials with her concerns about safety. He said he never told Fenton about buying guns and protective clothing and planning a massacre.

Fenton had prescribed Holmes sertraline, a generic version of Zoloft used to treat depression, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder; and Clonazepam, usually prescribed to treat anxiety and panic attacks.

The drugs may have had an unfortunate side effect, as was evident in the recorded interviews.

Reid: What about the psychiatry with Fenton made the fear go away?

Holmes: I thought the drug sertraline helped reduce anxiety and fear.

Reid: It sounds a little like you’re saying, if you hadn’t had the medication, the shootings never would have taken place.

Holmes: I’d say it was a possibility.

Once Holmes left school, his insurance would not cover his sessions with Fenton, he said. One way he communicated his money problems, he told Reid, was to slide $400 in burned $20 bills into the notebook before he mailed it.

“Money was a factor with me not continuing the therapy,” Holmes said. “If I stayed and got further treatment I might have not done the shooting.”